RIYADMEDIA

MOSCOW — A senior ally of President Vladimir Putin arrived in Tehran on Monday for talks with Iranian leaders including the president and top security officials as the Islamic Republic weighs its response to the killing of a Hamas leader. 

Russia has condemned the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Iran last week and called on all parties to refrain from steps that could tip the Middle East into a wider regional war. 

Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia’s security council, was shown by Russia’s Zvezda television station meeting Rear Admiral Ali Akbar Ahmadian, a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander who serves as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. 

Shoigu, who was Russia’s defense minister before being moved to the security council in May, also met with President Masoud Pezeshkian. 

“In Tehran, the secretary of the Russian Security Council is scheduled to meet with the president, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and the head of the General Staff,” according to Zvezda TV. 

Though Putin has yet to comment in public on the recent escalation of tensions in the Middle East, senior Russian officials have said that those behind the killing of Haniyeh were seeking to scuttle any hope of peace in the Middle East and to draw the U.S. into military action. 

Iran blames Israel and has said it will “punish” it; Israeli officials have not claimed responsibility. Iran backs Hamas, which is at war with Israel in Gaza, and the Lebanese group Hezbollah whose senior military commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut last week. 

Russia has cultivated closer ties with Iran since the start of its war with Ukraine and has said it is preparing to sign a wide-ranging cooperation agreement with the Islamic State. 

Reuters reported in February that Iran had provided Russia with many powerful surface-to-surface ballistic missiles. The U.S. said in June that Russia appeared to be deepening its defense cooperation with Iran and had received hundreds of one-way attack drones that it was using to strike Ukraine, something Moscow denies.  

Russia said last Friday it joined Iran in condemning the assassination of the Hamas leader and pointed out “the extremely dangerous consequences of such actions.” 

Washington said it did not have any expectation that Russia would play a productive role in de-escalating tensions in the region. 

“We haven’t seen them play a productive role in this conflict since October 7. They have, for the most part, been absent. Certainly, we’ve seen them do nothing to urge any party to take de-escalatory steps,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told a daily briefing. 

The U.S. does not know why Shoigu’s trip is taking place now, Miller said, but one possibility might be to further Moscow’s relationship with Tehran to seek support for its invasion of Ukraine. 

“Certainly, we have seen that with the security relationship between Iran and Russia before,” he added.
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Johannesburg, South Africa — Billboards and videos popping up in several African cities show 20th-century independence leaders and anti-colonial quotes as part of a drive to promote the Kremlin-backed outlet RT.

What they don’t advertise is that the Russian outlet being promoted has been largely blocked in the West for being part of Putin’s propaganda network and for pushing disinformation, including about the war in Ukraine.

The ad campaign seeks to tap into Africa’s colonial past — another tactic that disinformation experts say Russia regularly uses to try to sow division.

“Your Values. Shared,” promise billboards highlighting Julius Nyerere, Tanzania’s first president; Ugandan independence leader Milton Obote; and former Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah. Another features Robert Mugabe, who was much-admired for leading Zimbabwe to independence but was later widely seen by his citizens as a tyrant.

In addition, travelers passing through Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, one of the continent’s major transport hubs, will be met with large-screen digital video promos for RT.

In a press release, the television network said the campaign “emphasizes RT’s commitment to [the] dismantling of neo-colonialist narratives in news media.”

“Pervasive western mainstream media dominance is something that RT has had to battle for nearly two decades,” RT deputy editor-in-chief Anna Belkina said in a recent op-ed on the rationale behind the campaign.

“They all come from the same handful of countries. And yet they have the gall to tell the entire world what to think and how to feel about the rest of the world, even about the ‘audience’ countries themselves,” she wrote.

RT was “a voice of dissent in the media landscape,” she declared.

But that is not the full story. Media watchdogs and disinformation analysts have long pointed to how Russia and China seek to gain a foothold in Africa, using free content and funding with local media as a sweetener.

And Russia is the leading source of disinformation on the continent, the Africa Center for Strategic Studies said. Its March 2024 report found a nearly fourfold increase in disinformation campaigns targeting African countries, with an aim of “triggering destabilizing and antidemocratic consequences.”

“Russia received quite a setback at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, because within a few weeks, Europe had imposed sanctions on Russia and the feed of RT that comes into the South African and African markets on DStv [Digital Satellite TV] … was cut,” said Steven Gruzd, a Russia expert at the South African Institute of International Affairs in Pretoria, adding that the media campaign “is a little bit of a reaction to the frustration it’s had.”

The network that once ran across Europe, Canada, Australia and the United States has largely lost its impact following Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine.

Belkina said in addition to the ad blitz, RT is also starting a new TV show based out of Kenya, anchored by well-known Kenyan lawyer P.L.O. Lumumba.

Pivot to Africa

RT was formed in 2005, funded by the Russian government. Originally called Russia Today, it has different language channels, including English, Arabic, Spanish and French.

It has often been described as a propaganda outlet and has been found by media regulators like Britain’s Ofcom to lack impartiality and broadcast “misleading” material. In 2017, it was forced to register as a foreign agent in the United States.

RT gets hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. In its early years, it managed to attract big names to host its shows, including Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and late American TV host Larry King.

But the broadcaster was badly hit by sanctions in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and was taken off the air in many parts of the world, including Europe and North America.

Silicon Valley giants also reacted. Meta blocked RT Facebook and Instagram pages in the European Union. Microsoft removed RT from its platforms, and Apple removed it from its App Store in all countries but Russia. YouTube blocked RT in March 2022, though its content can reportedly be found on the channel through proxies.

Though many African countries were loath to take a stance on the Ukraine war, with most abstaining from U.N. votes on the issue, RT wasn’t immune from problems in Africa. South African satellite broadcaster MultiChoice cut RT from its pan-African DSTV service, saying EU sanctions had forced them to do so.

South Africans were still able to watch RT on Chinese channel StarSat until it was pulled from that station in 2023.

And it’s unclear what became of plans announced in 2022 to open an English-language hub in Johannesburg. Asked via email by VOA, Beklina said it was operating. But the journalist chosen to run the hub, Paula Slier, who has since left RT, said in a WhatsApp message that as far as she was aware, there was no brick-and-mortar office in the city now.

RT has made inroads elsewhere on the continent, establishing a bureau in Algeria last year. Also last year, Afrique Media in Cameroon signed a partnership with the Russian network.

“Since March 2022, RT headquarters in Moscow has had its eyes fixed on Africa, where it is planning a long-term presence,” Reporters Without Borders said in a statement last year. The organization says RT is “available in the Maghreb, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Cameroon.”

According to RT’s website, the channel can also be viewed in Kenya, Tanzania and other African countries through China’s StarTimes service. It can be seen on satellite or the internet in Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and elsewhere.

Asked by VOA how many African countries does RT broadcast in, Beklina replied “many.”

Anti-colonial narrative

RT is using the narrative that Russia was never a colonial power to try and gain traction in Africa, experts say. Many African ruling parties have strong historical links to Moscow because the former Soviet Union supported their liberation struggles against colonial or white-minority rule.

“I think the collective antipathy towards colonialism, which is deeply ingrained in African populations, is a string that Russia is pulling,” said Gruzd.

Asked by VOA whether he thinks the campaign will resonate with Africans, he said it was hard to know what proportion, but judging by pro-Russia and anti-Western sentiment on African Twitter/X, there were certainly some people on the continent with whom it would resonate.

“I think there would be some sympathy for this line and some support for it,” Gruzd said. “On the other hand, I think there are a lot of people who see through this and can see the agenda behind what is being promoted.”

He noted that Russia has been making inroads in Africa for some time, particularly though the Wagner mercenary group, which has gotten involved with governments in Mali, the Central African Republic and other countries.

But he said Russia has also been active in the media sector.

“In Francophone Africa, they put forward a very anti-West, very anti-French line. Also very, very involved in social media campaigns and disinformation, exacerbating local grievances,” Gruzd noted.

Anton Harber, a former journalism professor at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand, said he thought RT’s ad campaign was “too dated” to hold much sway with young Africans — using African leaders from generations ago, some of whom are now viewed skeptically.

“There is a huge irony in RT promoting itself as a voice of anti-colonialism at a time when Russia is increasing its influence on the continent in ways that could be described as neo-colonial. One thing we know about RT is that it is not an African voice, but Putin’s outlet, there to serve him and his country,” Harber said. “So, it is dressing up its ambitions for influence in, with a paternalistic anti-colonial rhetoric.”
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NANTERRE, France — No one can match America’s depth at the pool.  

That said, claiming the top step on the Olympic medal podium is no longer a given for U.S. swimmers.  

Nine days of thrilling competition at La Defense Arena wrapped up Sunday night with the Americans barely pulling out the lead in the gold medal standings thanks to a victory in the last race.  

The U.S. finished with eight golds, its fewest since the 1988 Seoul Games and one ahead of its biggest rival, Australia.  

“It’s one of the worst performances in history as a U.S. team,” Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian ever and part of the NBC broadcast team in Paris, said Monday. “Something’s got to happen before 2028 because if you have a repeat like this, it’s gonna be even more embarrassing.”  

Notably, the rest of the world totaled more victories (20) than the United States and Australia combined, the first time that’s happened since the 1996 Atlanta Games.  

The Americans will certainly be intent on improving their performance heading into the home games at Los Angeles in 2028, when swimming will have in its largest, most spectacular setting yet — a temporary pool inside SoFi Stadium with a capacity for some 38,000 fans.  

Still, with more and more international swimmers getting their training in the U.S. — and prominent American coaches such as Bob Bowman spreading their knowledge to other countries — a more diverse list of gold medalists is likely to be the norm going forward.  

“This sport is growing and I can’t help but feel like we’ve been a part of that,” American gold medalist Bobby Finke said. “It’s something we should take home and be proud of.”  

Two of the biggest swimming stars in Paris, France’s Léon Marchand and Canada’s Summer McIntosh, train in the U.S. but won a bevy of medals for their home countries.  

Marchand, who captured four individual golds as well as a relay bronze, is coached by Bowman, best known as the guy who guided Michael Phelps throughout his record-setting career. It was a bit strange to see Bowman in a France shirt, working on the coaching staff of Marchand’s nation.  

After a break to savor his Olympic triumph, Marchand will return to the U.S. to continue his work with Bowman, who now heads the swimming program at the University of Texas.  

“Look at Bob Bowman. He doesn’t care if you’re from the USA or whatever,” said Shane Ryan, an American-born swimmer who competes for Ireland. “He just wants to coach the fastest swimmers at all times.”  

McIntosh trains with a team in Sarasota, Florida, where she honed the form that produced three individual gold medals — the most ever by a Canadian athlete — and a silver.  

“I think competition is great,” said longtime American stalwart Ryan Murphy, who trains with several international athletes at Cal-Berkeley including Spain’s Hugo González. “He’s pushed me a lot. There’s plenty of days where he’s right next to me and helping me get better.”  

Murphy said it’s only natural in today’s information-driven world that more nations are rising up to challenge the U.S.   

“People will take a video of what they’re doing in practice and put it up on social media right away,” he said. “The learning curve is so quick around the world. That’s a big reason why there’s so many talented athletes across the world now.”  

The U.S. certainly has its shining moments in Paris.  

Katie Ledecky won two more golds, moving her into a tie for second place among all athletes on the career list with nine. She also joined Phelps as the only swimmers to win the same event at four straight Summer Games with her victory in the 800-meter freestyle.  

The women’s team produced several more stars, including Torri Huske (three golds, two silvers), Gretchen Walsh (two golds, two silvers) and Regan Smith (two golds, three silvers).  

But there were plenty of disappointments, particular on the men’s side.  

Caeleb Dressel, a big star at the Tokyo Games with five gold medals, finished sixth in the 50 freestyle and didn’t even qualify for the final of the 100 butterfly.  

Murphy settled for a bronze in the 100 backstroke and, like Dressel, failed to qualify for the final of his other individual event, the 200 back.  

In all, the American men produced only two gold medals, and they didn’t pick up an individual victory until Finke’s world record in the 1,500 freestyle on the final night.   

“You always want to be better,” said Anthony Nesty, head coach of the men’s team. “Yes, we want our athletes to win gold medals, but the other teams have great athletes as well. We have to go back, all the coaches in the U.S., get back on it and hopefully four years from now we have a better result. From the men, for sure.”  

The depth of the American team remains its biggest strength. Even with four of its most prominent stars — Dressel, Murphy, Lilly King and Simone Manuel — managing only one individual medal (Murphy’s bronze in the 100 back), the U.S. easily led the overall medals table with 28.  

Three of the four world records set at the meet came from the Americans, two of them in relays.  

“Whether our athletes won a gold medal or failed to make a semifinal or whatever it might be,” said U.S. women’s coach Todd DeSorbo, “you’ve got to learn from it, go back home and be better.” 
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BAMAKO — Mali is immediately cutting diplomatic ties with Ukraine over comments by a spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (GUR) about fighting in its north that killed Malian soldiers and Wagner fighters in late July, it said Sunday.

Mali’s northern Tuareg rebels say they killed at least 84 Russian Wagner mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers over days of fierce fighting in the north of the West African country in what appears to be Wagner’s heaviest defeat since it stepped in two years ago to help Mali’s military authorities fight insurgent groups.

GUR spokesperson Andriy Yusov has not confirmed Kyiv’s involvement in the fighting, but in comments published on public broadcaster Suspilne’s website on July 29, he said the Malian rebels had received the “necessary” information to conduct the attack.

“The rebels received all the necessary information they needed, and not just the information, which allowed [them] to conduct a successful military operation against Russian perpetrators of war crimes. We certainly won’t go into details now — you will see more of this in the future,” he said.

Mali said it had learned “with deep shock of the subversive remarks.”

It said Yusov had “admitted Ukraine’s involvement in a cowardly, treacherous and barbaric attack by armed terrorist groups that resulted in the death of members of the Malian Defence and Security Forces.”

“The actions taken by the Ukrainian authorities violate the sovereignty of Mali, go beyond the scope of foreign interference, which is already condemnable in itself, and constitute a clear aggression against Mali and support for international terrorism,” the Malian government said.

It also cited comments by Ukraine’s ambassador to Senegal, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast and Liberia.

Senegal’s foreign minister summoned Ukrainian Ambassador Yurii Pyvovarov on Friday over a video it said the Ukrainian embassy had posted on its Facebook page in which Pyvovarov provided “unequivocal and unqualified support for the terrorist attack” in Mali.
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Paris — American gymnast Simone Biles didn’t get the golden sendoff she hoped. 

Biles earned silver in the floor exercise finals on Monday — her 11th Olympic medal — after a routine that included a couple of costly steps out of bounds. 

Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade became the first gymnast to beat Biles in a floor final in a major international competition, posting a score of 14.166 that finished just ahead of Biles at 14.133. 

Jordan Chiles, a longtime friend of Biles, earned the bronze. 

The 27-year-old Biles, considered the greatest in the history of the sport, wasn’t at her usual best during a routine set to music from pop icons Taylor Swift and Beyonce. 

Still, she boosted her medal haul in Paris to four, gold in the team, all-around and vault finals and a silver that came as a surprise in her signature event. 

Biles’ medal total (including seven gold, two silver, two bronze) ties Czechoslovakia’s Vera Caslavska for the second-most by a female gymnast in Olympic history. She missed a chance to add a fifth Paris medal earlier Monday when she fell during the beam final, finishing fifth. 

Though she can make it look easy at times, it is not. She thudded to the floor during her floor warm-up and had the balky left calf she tweaked in qualifying re-wrapped before she competed. 

Her tumbling passes weren’t perfect — she stepped out of bounds twice — but her difficulty is usually so far above everyone else that it hardly matters. 

Not this time. She received a 7.833 execution score that included 0.6 in deductions for stepping out of bounds, allowing Andrade to win her second Olympic gold. 

Still, wearing a red-white-and-blue leotard featuring thousands of crystals, Biles ended nine days of competition in Paris by silencing the critics once and for all who have long derided her for pulling out of multiple events at the Tokyo Games three years ago. 

She won four medals in all, just one less than she did eight years ago in Rio de Janeiro. 

Chiles — the last competitor of the day — initially received a 13.666 from judges. After some delay, her total was boosted by 0.1 when she filed an inquiry about her difficulty score, pushing Chiles past Romanians Ana Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea and into third. 
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New York — Nearly everything on Wall Street is tumbling Monday as fear about a slowing U.S. economy worsens and sets off another sell-off for financial markets around the world.

The S&P 500 was down by 3.1% in early trading, coming off its worst week in more than three months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 996 points, or 2.5%, as of 9:50 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite slid 3.8%.

The drops were just the latest in a sell-off that swept the Earth. Japan’s Nikkei 225 helped start Monday by plunging 12.4% for its worst day since the Black Monday crash of 1987.

It was the first chance for traders in Tokyo to react to Friday’s report showing U.S. employers slowed their hiring last month by much more than economists expected. That was the latest piece of data on the U.S. economy to come in weaker than expected, and it’s all raised fear the Federal Reserve has pressed the brakes on the U.S. economy by too much for too long through high interest rates in hopes of stifling inflation.

Losses elsewhere in the world were nearly as neck-snapping. South Korea’s Kospi index careened 8.8% lower, stock markets across Europe sank roughly 3% and bitcoin dropped 12%.

Even gold, which has a reputation for offering safety during tumultuous times, slipped 1.6%.

That’s in part because traders are wondering if the damage has been so severe that the Federal Reserve will have to cut interest rates in an emergency meeting, before its next scheduled decision on Sept. 18. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which closely tracks expectations for the Fed, fell to 3.79% from 3.88% late Friday and from 5% in April.

“The Fed could ride in on a white horse to save the day with a big rate cut, but the case for an inter-meeting cut seems flimsy,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. “Those are usually reserved for emergencies, like COVID, and an unemployment rate of 4.3% doesn’t really seem like an emergency.”

“The Fed could respond by stopping” the shrinking of its holdings of Treasurys and other bonds, which could put less upward pressure on longer-term yields, he said. “That could at least by a symbolic action that they’re not blind to what’s going on.”

Of course, the U.S. economy is still growing, and a recession is far from assured. The Fed has been clear about the tightrope it began walking when it started hiking rates sharply in March 2022: Being too aggressive would choke the economy, but going too soft would give inflation more oxygen and hurt everyone.

After leaving the federal funds rate steady last week, before several discouraging economic reports hit, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said officials “have a lot of room to respond if we were to see weakness” in the job market after raising their main rate to the highest level in more than two decades.

Goldman Sachs economist David Mericle sees a higher chance of a recession following Friday’s jobs report. But he still sees only a 25% chance of that, up from 15%, in part “because the data look fine overall” and he does not “see major financial imbalances.”

Still, stocks of companies whose profits are most closely tied to the economy’s strength took heavy losses on the fears about a sharp slowdown. The small companies in the Russell 2000 index dropped 5.5%, further dousing what had been a revival for it and other beaten-down areas of the market.

Making things worse for Wall Street, Big Tech stocks also tumbled sharply as the market’s most popular trade for much of this year continued to unravel. Apple, Nvidia and a handful of other Big Tech stocks known as the “ Magnificent Seven ” had propelled the S&P 500 to dozens of all-time highs this year, in part on a frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology. They were so strong that they overshadowed weakness for areas of the stock market weighed down by high interest rates.

But Big Tech’s momentum turned last month on worries investors had taken their prices too high and expectations for future growth are becoming too difficult to meet. A set of underwhelming profit reports from Tesla and Alphabet added to the pessimism and accelerated the declines.

Apple fell 4.6% Monday after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that it had slashed its ownership stake in the iPhone maker.

Nvidia, the chip company that’s become the poster child of Wall Street’s AI bonanza, fell even more, 8.3%. Analysts cut their profit forecasts over the weekend for the company after a report from The Information said Nvidia’s new AI chip is delayed. It has trimmed its gain for the year to 98.7% from 170% in the middle of June.

Because the Magnificent Seven companies have grown to be the market’s biggest by market value, the movements for their stocks carry much more weight on the S&P 500 and other indexes.

Worries outside corporate profits, interest rates and the economy are also weighing on the market. The Israel-Hamas war may be worsening, which beyond its human toll could also cause sharp swings for the price of oil. That’s adding to broader worries about potential hotspots around the world, while upcoming U.S. elections could further scramble things.
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London — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday vowed “swift criminal sanctions” following an emergency meeting on the far-right riots that broke out across England last week over the murder of three children.

The prime minister met with ministers and police chiefs, including Scotland Yard boss Mark Rowley, to discuss how to quell the violence that first broke out in Southport, northwest England, on Tuesday.

Over the weekend, several police officers were injured and scores of people were arrested as mobs throwing bricks and flares clashed with officers, burnt and looted shops, and smashed the windows of cars and homes.

As part of a “number of actions” to come out of Monday’s meeting, the government will “ramp up criminal justice” to ensure that “sanctions are swift,” Starmer told the media.

He also said a “standing army” of specially-trained police officers was ready to be deployed to support local forces where any further riots break out.

“My focus is on making sure that we stop this disorder,” he added.

Clashes erupted in Southport a day after three young girls were killed and five more children critically injured during a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

False rumors initially spread on social media saying the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker, but police said the suspect was a 17-year-old born in Wales, with UK media reporting he has Rwandan parents.

However, that has not stopped mosques from being targeted.

Police have since arrested hundreds of people in towns and cities nationwide, with anti-immigration demonstrators and rioters facing off against police and counter-protestors, including groups of Muslims.

The prime minister on Sunday warned rioters they would “regret” participating in England’s worst disorder in 13 years, while his interior minister Yvette Cooper told the BBC on Monday that “there will be a reckoning.”

Cooper also said that social media put a “rocket booster” under the violence, and Starmer stressed that “criminal law applies online as well as offline.”

Police have blamed the violence on people associated with the English Defense League, an anti-Islam organization founded 15 years ago whose supporters have been linked to football hooliganism.

Some of the worst scenes on Sunday broke out in Rotherham, northern England, where masked rioters smashed several windows at a hotel that has been used to house asylum seekers.

At least 12 officers were injured, including one who was knocked unconscious, as they battled around 500 protesters with “far-right and anti-immigration views,” South Yorkshire Police’s Lindsey Butterfield told media on Monday.

There were also large scuffles in Bolton, northwest England, and Middlesbrough, northeast England, where mobs smashed windows of houses and cars, leading to 43 arrests.

Protesters there seized a camera from an AFP crew and broke it. The journalists were not injured.

Late on Sunday, Staffordshire police said another hotel known to have sheltered asylum seekers was targeted near Birmingham.

The violence is a major challenge for Starmer, elected only a month ago after leading Labour to a landslide win over the Conservatives.

MPs from all sides have urged Starmer to recall parliament from its summer holiday, including Conservative former interior minister Priti Patel, Labour MPs Diane Abbott and Dawn Butler, and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

Police have said more than 150 people were arrested over the weekend.

Rioters threw bricks, bottles and flares at police — injuring several officers — and looted and burnt shops, while demonstrators shouted anti-Islamic slurs as they clashed with counter-protesters.

The violence is the worst England has seen since 2011, when widespread rioting followed the police killing of a mixed-race man in north London.

Authorities have said the initial violence was partly caused by the false rumors about suspect Axel Rudakubana, who is accused of killing a six, seven, and nine-year-old, and injuring another 10 people.

Agitators have targeted at least two mosques, with the government now offering new emergency security to Islamic places of worship.

The rallies have been advertised on far-right social media channels under the banner “Enough is enough.”

Participants have waved English and British flags while chanting slogans like “Stop the boats” — a reference to irregular migrants crossing the Channel to Britain from France.

Anti-fascist demonstrators have meanwhile held counter-rallies in many cities.

At last month’s election, the Reform UK party led by Brexit cheerleader Farage captured 14 percent of the vote — one of the largest vote shares for a hard-right British party.
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AMSTERDAM — Semiconductor industry group SEMI Europe called on the European Union on Monday to place as few restrictions as possible on outbound investment in foreign computer chip technology by companies based in the bloc. 

Proposals to screen outbound investment — European capital being invested in foreign semiconductor, AI and biotechnology companies — are being considered, though no EU decision is expected before 2025. 

The U.S. has issued draft rules for banning some such investments in China that could threaten U.S. national security, part of a broader push to prevent U.S. know-how from helping the Chinese to develop sophisticated technology and dominate global markets. 

“European semiconductor companies must be as free as possible in their investment decisions or otherwise risk losing their agility and relevance,” SEMI Europe said in a paper outlining its recommendations. 

It said policies under consideration by the EU appear to be overly broad and if adopted could force companies to disclose sensitive business information, adding that restrictions on cross-border research cooperation would be misplaced. 

“We encourage the European Commission to further address these aspects and to not infringe on the ability of European multinational companies to carry out the necessary investments to sustain their operations,” it said. 

SEMI Europe represents about 300 Europe-based semiconductor firms and institutions, including companies such as ASMLASML.AS, ASMASMI.AS, InfineonIFXGn.DE, STMicroelectronicsSTMPA.PA, NXPNXPI.O, and research centers such as imec, CEA-Leti and Fraunhofer. 

Alongside the proposals for outbound investment screening, the EU has also been moving towards a law that screens inbound investments of foreign capital that might pose a security risk, such as purchases of European ports, nuclear plants and sensitive technologies. 

 
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TAMPA, FLORIDA — The center of Hurricane Debby is expected to reach the Big Bend coast of Florida early Monday bringing potential record-setting rains, catastrophic flooding and life-threatening storm surge as it moves slowly across the northern part of the state before stalling over the coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina.

Debby was located about 40 miles (70 kilometers) west of Cedar Key, Florida, with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph). The storm was moving north at 12 mph (19 kph), the National Hurricane Center in Miami said early Monday.

Debby is the fourth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season after Tropical Storm Alberto, Hurricane Beryl and Tropical Storm Chris, all of which formed in June.

Forecasters warned heavy amounts of rain from Debby could spawn catastrophic flooding in Florida, South Carolina and Georgia.

The storm was expected to make landfall around midday Monday in the Big Bend area of Florida, north of Tampa, the hurricane center said. A tornado watch also was in effect for parts of Florida and Georgia until 6 a.m. Monday.

“Right now, we are trying secure everything from floating away,” said Sheryl Horne, whose family owns the Shell Island Fish Camp along the Wakulla River in St. Marks, Florida, where some customers moved their boats inland. The sparsely populated Big Bend region in the Florida Panhandle was hit last year by Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane.

“I am used to storms and I’m used to cleaning up after storms,” Horne said.

Debby was expected to move eastward over northern Florida and then stall over the coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina, thrashing the region with potential record-setting rains totaling up to 76 centimeter) beginning Tuesday. Officials also warned of life-threatening storm surge along Florida’s Gulf Coast, with 1.8 to 3 meters of inundation expected Monday between the Ochlockonee and Suwannee rivers.

“There’s some really amazing rainfall totals being forecast and amazing in a bad way,” Michael Brennan, director of the hurricane center, said at a briefing. “That would be record-breaking rainfall associated with a tropical cyclone for both the states of Georgia and South Carolina if we got up to the 30-inch level.”

Flooding impacts could last through Friday and are expected to be especially severe in low-lying areas near the coast, including Savannah, Georgia; Hilton Head, South Carolina; and Charleston, South Carolina. North Carolina officials were monitoring the storm’s progress.

Officials in Savannah said the area could see a month’s worth of rain in four days if the system stalls over the region.

“This is going to a significant storm. The word historic cannot be underscored here,” Savannah Mayor Van. R. Johnson said during a press conference.

The hurricane center said at 11 p.m. that Debby was located about 161 kilometers west of Tampa, Florida, with maximum sustained winds of 120 kph. The storm was moving north at 19 kph.

Debby’s outer bands grazed the west coast of Florida, flooding streets and bringing power outages. Sarasota County officials said most roadways on Siesta Key, a barrier island off the coast of Sarasota, were under water. The hurricane center had predicted the system would strengthen as it curved off the southwest Florida coast, where the water has been extremely warm.

At a briefing Sunday afternoon, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned the storm could lead to “really, really significant flooding that will happen in North Central Florida.”

The storm would follow a similar track to Hurricane Idalia but would “be much wetter. We are going to see much more inundation,” he said.

A hurricane warning was issued for parts of the Big Bend and Florida Panhandle areas, while tropical storm warnings were posted for Florida’s West Coast, the southern Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas. A tropical storm watch extended farther west into the Panhandle.

Tropical storms and hurricanes can trigger river flooding and overwhelm drainage systems and canals. Forecasters warned of 15 centimeters to 30 centimeters of rain and up to 46 centimeters in isolated areas of Florida.

Storm surge expected to hit Gulf Coast, including Tampa Bay

Flat Florida is prone to flooding even on sunny days and the storm was predicted to bring a surge of 0.6 to 1.2 meters along most of the Gulf Coast, including Tampa Bay, with a storm tide of up to 2.1 meters north of there in the Big Bend region.

Forecasters warned of “a danger of life-threatening storm surge inundation” in a region that includes Hernando Beach, Crystal River, Steinhatchee and Cedar Key. Officials in Citrus and Levy counties ordered a mandatory evacuation of coastal areas, while those in Hernando, Manatee, Pasco and Taylor counties called for voluntary evacuations. Shelters opened in those and some other counties.

Citrus County Sheriff Mike Prendergast estimated 21,000 people live in his county’s evacuation zone.

Residents, businesses prepare for flooding

Residents in Steinhatchee, Florida, which flooded during Hurricane Idalia, spent Sunday moving items to higher ground.

“I’ve been here 29 years. This isn’t the first time I’ve done it. Do you get used to it? No,” Mark Reblin said as he moved items out of the liquor store he owns.

Employees of Savannah Canoe and Kayak in Georgia said they were busy tying down their watercraft, laying sandbags, and raising equipment off the ground. Mayme Bouy, the store manager, said she wasn’t too concerned about the forecast calling for a potential historic rain event.

“But we do have some high tides this week so if the rain is happening around then, that could be bad,” Bouy added. “I’d rather play it safe than sorry.”

Governors declare emergencies ahead of landfall

DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 61 of Florida’s 67 counties, with the National Guard activating 3,000 guard members. Utility crews from in and out of state were ready to restore power after the storm, he said in a post on X. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster made their own emergency declarations.

In Tampa alone, officials gave out more than 30,000 sandbags to barricade against flooding.

“We’ve got our stormwater drains cleared out. We’ve got our generators all checked and full. We’re doing everything that we need to be prepared to face a tropical storm,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said.

Northeast coast also preparing for storm conditions

Emergency managers in New England and New York were already monitoring the path of the storm for the possibility of remnants striking their states. States including New York and Vermont have been hit by heavy rain and thunderstorms in recent weeks and were still coping with flooding and saturated ground.
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CHICO, California — Fire crews battling California’s largest wildfire this year have corralled a third of the blaze aided in part by cooler weather, but a return of triple-digit temperatures could allow it to grow, fire officials said Sunday.

Cooler temperatures and increased humidity gave firefighters “a great opportunity to make some good advances” on the fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills, said Chris Vestal, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The Park Fire has scorched 1,623 square kilometers since igniting July 24 when authorities said a man pushed a burning car into a gully in Chico and then fled. The blaze was 30% contained as of Sunday.

The massive fire has scorched an area bigger than the city of Los Angeles, which covers about 1,302 square kilometers. It continues to burn through rugged, inaccessible, and steep terrain with dense vegetation.

The fire’s push northward has brought it toward the rugged lava rock landscape surrounding Lassen Volcanic National Park, which has been closed because of the threat. The inhospitable terrain remains one of the biggest challenges for firefighters.

“The challenge with that is we can’t use our heavy machinery like bulldozers to go through and cut a line right through it,” Vestal said.

“On top of that, we have to put human beings, our hand crews, in to remove those fuels and some of that terrain is not really the greatest for people that are hiking so it takes a long time and extremely hard work,” he added.

The fire has destroyed at least 572 structures and damaged 52 others. At least 2,700 people in Butte and Tehama Counties remain under evacuation orders, Veal said.

After days of smoky skies, clear skies Sunday allowed firefighters to deploy helicopters and other aircraft to aid in the fight against the blaze as temperatures reached above 38 degrees Celsius.

“The fire is in a good place from the weather conditions we had the last couple of days but we still have to worry about the weather that we have and the conditions that are going to be present now for about the next five or six days,” Veal said.

The fire in Northern California is one of 85 large blazes burning across the West.

In Colorado, firefighters were making progress Sunday against three major fires burning near heavily populated areas north and south of Denver. Many residents evacuated by the fires have been allowed to go back home.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a blaze threatening hundreds of homes near the Colorado city of Littleton as arson.

About 50 structures were damaged or destroyed, about half of them homes, by a fire near Loveland. And one person was found dead in a home burned by a fire west of the town of Lyons.

Scientists say extreme wildfires are becoming more common and destructive in the U.S. West and other parts of the world as climate change warms the planet and droughts become more severe.

In Canada, a 24-year-old firefighter battling a blaze in Jasper National Park was killed Saturday by a falling tree, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

The firefighter from Calgary, whose name was not released, was battling a fire north of Jasper, a town in Alberta Province that was half destroyed last month by a fast-moving fire.
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Geneva — Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival opens on Wednesday with Shah Rukh Khan, Jane Campion, Alfonso Cuaron and Irene Jacob set to be honored with special awards.

Founded in 1946, Locarno is one of the world’s longest-running annual film festivals and focuses on auteur cinema.

Held on the shores of Lake Maggiore, in the Italian-speaking Ticino region of southern Switzerland, films are screened in Locarno’s central square, a feature of Swiss national life depicted on the country’s 20-franc banknotes.

The open-air Piazza Grande holds up to 8,000 moviegoers, and films are shown on one of the largest screens in the world.

Bollywood superstar Khan, 58, will on Saturday be given the Pardo alla Carriera award for people whose artistic contributions have redefined cinema.

“The wealth and breadth of his contribution to Indian cinema is unprecedented,” said the festival’s artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro.

“Khan is a king who has never lost touch with the audience that crowned him. This brave and daring artist has always been willing to challenge himself.”

The 77th festival, which runs until August 17, features 225 films, including 104 world premieres and 15 debut movies.

Locarno’s top prize is the Golden Leopard. Previous winning directors include Roberto Rossellini, John Ford, Stanley Kubrick, Milos Forman, Mike Leigh and Jim Jarmusch.

Seventeen films, all world or international premieres, are vying for the award, including movies from Lithuania, France, Austria, Italy and South Korea.

The Golden Leopard comes with a prize fund of $87,400, shared between the director and the producer.

Switzerland’s largest film event will feature a retrospective dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures.

‘Tortured, fascinating characters’

New Zealand’s Campion will be recognized with the Leopard of Honor, given to outstanding personalities of world cinema.

She was the first woman to be nominated twice for the best director Oscar: first for “The Piano” (1993) and then for “The Power of the Dog” (2021), which secured her the Academy Award.

“Her work, peopled with tortured, fascinating characters and marked by an astonishing skill in grappling with the more disturbing side of the human condition, represents one of the undisputed pinnacles of contemporary filmmaking,” Nazzaro said.

Previous recipients include Ennio Morricone, Jean-Luc Godard, Bernardo Bertolucci, Paul Verhoeven, Terry Gilliam and Werner Herzog.

Mexican filmmaker Cuaron, who won the best director Oscars for “Gravity” (2013) and “Roma” (2018), will receive the lifetime achievement award.

“Cuaron has reinvented himself as an artist with each new film,” said Nazzaro.

French-Swiss actress Jacob, who starred in “The Double Life of Veronique” (1991) and “Three Colours: Red” (1994), will receive the Leopard Club Award, given for film work touching the collective imagination.

Stacey Sher — the U.S. film producer behind “Pulp Fiction,” “Get Shorty,” “Gattaca,” “Erin Brockovich,” “Django Unchained” and “The Hateful Eight” — will receive the Raimondo Rezzonico Award for major achievements in international movie production.

Nearly 150,000 people attended last year’s festival.
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Paris — Rarely on the podium and barred from the opening ceremony, the 15 Russians competing at the Paris Olympics have an uneasy status as “Individual Neutral Athletes” following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Some in the Olympic Village opposed them taking part in the Summer Games, and Russian opinion is divided.

In Russia, the Olympics aren’t being shown on TV and some politicians and media figures have even described those willing to compete in Paris as traitors.

It’s a complex environment for the athletes, some of them teenagers, to navigate and they’re wary of talking about politics or the war. 

What do the Russian athletes think?

“My family is proud of me, that’s all that matters,” said tennis player Diana Shnaider. She and Mirra Andreeva became the first Russians to win a medal at the Paris Olympics, taking silver in women’s doubles Sunday.

The 20-year-old former college player for North Carolina State said it was “amazing” to be at her first Olympics.

“There are still a lot of people from my country in the stands and they are still putting in a lot of support. I heard words of encouragement today,” she said after winning in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

Tennis players like Shnaider and 2021 U.S. Open winner Daniil Medvedev are used to dealing with the media and playing around the world without a Russian flag. Others seem a little overwhelmed.

Anzhela Bladtceva, a 19-year-old trampolinist, placed fifth in her event Friday and clutched a stuffed animal as she spoke with media afterward.

“There are so many emotions, so many people, everyone is so kind and happy and so helpful,” she said.

Bladtceva said she was spending time in the Olympic Village with a trampolinist friend from Azerbaijan and that she hadn’t been asked about the war. “No one asks at all, they ask if it was hard for us to get here, only positive questions. No one is saying bad things,” she said.

National delegations sailed down the Seine River on a flotilla of boats in the opening ceremony, but the neutral athletes weren’t included.

“It’s upsetting that they didn’t let us, but what can you do?” said Bladtceva, who was still in Russia for the ceremony. “I didn’t really watch it.”

Why are so few Russians competing in Paris?

Of the 32 “neutral” athletes in Paris, 17 previously represented Belarus and just 15 represented Russia. That’s compared to more than 300 Russians at the last Summer Games in Tokyo.

International Olympic Committee restrictions barred Russian athletes who are in the military or publicly supported the invasion of Ukraine. The IOC also blocked Russians from team sports. Track and field enforced its own blanket ban.

In gymnastics and weightlifting, Russia’s teams skipped qualifying events in protest of being forced to compete as neutrals or to undergo vetting, including checks of their social media.

Some athletes even qualified, accepted their IOC invitations, then withdrew weeks before the Olympics began. It wasn’t clear whether they made that decision under pressure at home. The IOC lists 10 Russians and one Belarusian who “initially accepted but subsequently declined.” 

Wrestler Shamil Mamedov briefly seemed to defy a Russian wrestling federation decision not to send athletes. The federation later told Russian state news agency Tass that Mamedov was out of the Olympics because an old injury flared up.

What happens when Russians win medals?

Shnaider and Andreeva’s silver in the tennis on Sunday was the first for Russian athletes.

They stood on the podium in matching green-and-white tracksuits as a green flag with the inscription AIN — the French acronym for Individual Neutral Athlete — was raised alongside the flags of Italy and Spain.

Neutral athletes from Belarus won gold and silver medals in the men’s and women’s trampoline competitions, respectively, on Friday, and Belarusian rower Yauheni Zalaty won a silver Saturday.

When a neutral athlete wins a gold medal, an “anthem” commissioned by the IOC plays. With stirring strings and a prominent drumbeat, it’s more like the soundtrack to an inspirational video than a national anthem. Their medals don’t count in Olympic organizers’ official medal table.

Russian athletes competed at the last Summer Olympics, in Tokyo, under the name “Russian Olympic Committee” and under less onerous restrictions in the aftermath of a doping scandal.

They were allowed to wear national colors and music by Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky played for gold medalists.

Are Russians competing for other countries?

At least 82 athletes at the Paris Olympics were born in Russia, including the neutral athletes, according to statistics from Norwegian broadcaster NRK. That leaves more than 60 competing for other nations. 

Some have lived outside Russia for years or moved abroad as children. Others switched their sporting allegiance since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Swimmer Anastasia Kirpichnikova competed for ROC at the Tokyo Olympics. She trained in France for years before making her switch to the French team official last year. Kirpichnikova won a silver medal for France in the women’s 1,500-meter freestyle behind Katie Ledecky on Wednesday.

What does Ukraine think?

Ukraine’s government and Olympic committee wanted Russian athletes excluded from all international sports and opposed IOC efforts to include them as neutrals. The limited Russian presence is like “nothing,” the head of Ukraine’s Olympic delegation told The Associated Press this week.

Ukraine briefly had a policy of boycotting Olympic qualifying competitions that allowed Russians to attend but dropped that last year because it risked not being represented at the Olympics at all. 

Ukrainian activists gathered information from Russian athletes’ social media in the months leading up to the Olympics, flagging posts to the IOC that they considered to support the war.

Some Ukrainians view changes of allegiance with suspicion, too. Fencing champion Olga Kharlan said last month that Russian athletes who switched allegiance to other countries’ teams after the invasion “should be checked more.” 
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Washington — Ordinary Americans are “getting whacked” by too many laws and regulations, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch says in a new book that underscores his skepticism of federal agencies and the power they wield.

“Too little law and we’re not safe, and our liberties aren’t protected,” Gorsuch told The Associated Press in an interview in his Supreme Court office. “But too much law and you actually impair those same things.”

“Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law” is being published Tuesday by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Gorsuch has received a $500,000 advance for the book, according to his annual financial disclosure reports.

In the interview, Gorsuch refused to be drawn into discussions about term limits or an enforceable code of ethics for the justices, both recently proposed by President Joe Biden at a time of diminished public trust in the court. Justice Elena Kagan, speaking a couple of days before Biden, separately said the court’s ethics code, adopted by the justices last November, should have a means of enforcement.

But Gorsuch did talk about the importance of judicial independence. “I’m not saying that there aren’t ways to improve what we have. I’m simply saying that we’ve been given something very special. It’s the envy of the world, the United States judiciary,” he said.

The 56-year-old justice was the first of three Supreme Court nominees of then-President Donald Trump, and they have combined to entrench a conservative majority that has overturned Roe v. Wade, ended affirmative action in college admissions, expanded gun rights and clipped environmental regulations aimed at climate change, as well as air and water pollution more generally.

A month ago, the Supreme Court completed a term in which Gorsuch and the court’s five other conservative justices delivered sharp rebukes to the administrative state in three major cases, including the decision that overturned the 40-year-old Chevron decision that had made it more likely that courts would sustain regulations. The court’s three liberal justices dissented each time.

Gorsuch also was in the majority in ruling that former presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution in a decision that indefinitely delayed the election interference case against Trump. What’s more, the justices made it harder to use a federal obstruction charge against people who were part of the mob that violently attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn Trump’s defeat by Biden in the 2020 election.

Gorsuch defended the immunity ruling as necessary to prevent presidents from being hampered while in office by threats of prosecution once they leave.

The court had to wrestle with an unprecedented situation, he said. “Here we have, for the first time in our history, one presidential administration bringing criminal charges against a prior president. It’s a grave question, right? Grave implications,” Gorsuch said.

But in the book, co-authored by a former law clerk, Janie Nitze, Gorsuch largely sets those big issues aside and turns his focus to a fisherman, a magician, Amish farmers, immigrants, a hair braider and others who risked jail time, large fines, deportation and other hardships over unyielding rules.

In 18 years as a judge, including the past seven on the Supreme Court, Gorsuch said, “There were just so many cases that came to me in which I saw ordinary Americans, just everyday, regular people trying to go about their lives, not trying to hurt anybody or do anything wrong and just getting whacked, unexpectedly, by some legal rule they didn’t know about.”

The problem, he said, is that there has been an explosion of laws and regulations, at both the federal and state levels. The sheer volume of Congress’ output for the past decade is overwhelming, he said, averaging 344 pieces of legislation totaling 2 million to 3 million words a year.

One vignette involves John Yates, a Florida fisherman who was convicted of getting rid of some undersized grouper under a federal law originally aimed at the accounting industry and the destruction of evidence in the Enron scandal. Yates’ case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where he won by a single vote.

“I wanted to tell the story of people whose lives were affected,” Gorsuch said.

The book expands on a theme that has run through Gorsuch’s opinions over the years, from his criticism of the Chevron decision back when he served on a federal appeals court in Denver to his statement in May 2023 in which he called emergency measures taken during the COVID-19 crisis that killed more than 1 million Americans perhaps “the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country.”

While Gorsuch has voted with the other conservative justices in most of the court’s momentous cases, he also has joined with the liberals in notable cases, including those in which he wrote the opinion in 2020 that expanded protections against workplace discrimination to LGBTQ people. Gorsuch also has sided with the liberal justices in all the court’s cases involving Native Americans since he joined the court.

Immigration, especially when people fighting deportation have complained they were given inadequate notice about hearings, is another area where he has typically broken with his conservative colleagues.

Gorsuch recently returned from a summer teaching gig in Porto, Portugal, for the George Mason University law school. Last year, he spent two weeks in Lisbon, Portugal, with the same program for which he was paid nearly $30,000, plus meals, lodging and travel.

He will travel to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, later this week to talk about the new book.

The day he met with AP, he said, was the first time in weeks that he put on a tie. He wore a dark blue suit, cowboy boots and a Western-style belt.

He seemed at ease, offering chocolate chip cookies and coffee to visitors and joking with a reporter who talked about an upcoming trip to the New Jersey shore. “Go fly some flags up there,” Gorsuch said, a reference to the controversy over flags, similar to those carried by Jan. 6 rioters, that were flown at homes owned by Justice Samuel Alito and his wife.

Gorsuch is not the only justice rolling out a book this summer. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s memoir, “Lovely One,” will be published next month.
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Somewhere in Ukraine — Ukraine’s newly arrived F-16 fighter jets were put on display Sunday by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said the planes will boost the country’s war effort against Russia.

“These jets are in our sky and today you see them,” said Zelenskyy, standing in front of two of the fighter jets as two others flew overhead in close formation. “It’s good that they are here and that we can put them to use.”

Ukraine is also trying to get neighboring countries to help defend it against Russian missiles, Zelenskyy said.

“This decision is probably a difficult one for our partners, as they are always afraid of unnecessary escalation,” said Ukraine’s president. “We will work on this … I think we have a good option of a NATO-Ukraine council … so that NATO countries could talk to Ukraine about the possibility of a small coalition of neighboring countries that would shoot down enemy missiles.”

Two F-16 jets, sporting Ukraine’s trident insignia on their tails and draped in camouflage netting, were a dramatic background for Zelenskyy’s address to Air Forces Day, an event held under tight security at an undisclosed location to protect the fighter jets from Russian attacks.

“Since the beginning of this war, we have been talking with our partners about the need to protect our Ukrainian skies from Russian missiles and Russian aircraft,” Zelenskyy said. “Now we have a new reality in our skies. The F-16s are in Ukraine. We made it happen. I am proud of our guys who are mastering these aircraft and have already started using them for our country. … Our combat aviation will bring us closer to victory.”

Ukraine may keep some of the F-16 fighter jets at foreign bases to protect them from Russian strikes, according to a senior Ukrainian military official. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Moscow could consider launching strikes at facilities in NATO countries if they host the warplanes used in Ukraine.

The American-made F-16 is an iconic fighter jet that’s been the front-line combat plane of choice for the NATO alliance and numerous air forces around the world for 50 years.

Although new to Ukraine, the F-16s are older jets that have been donated by Western allies of Ukraine. Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have committed to providing Ukraine with more than 60 of them over the coming months in what could be a slow trickle of deliveries. Zelenskyy did not say how many F-16s have arrived in Ukraine or which countries they came from.

United States President Joe Biden gave the go-ahead in August 2023 for used F-16s to be deployed to Ukraine, though the U.S. won’t be providing any of its own planes.

The F-16s will boost Ukraine’s military strength, especially by upgrading its air defenses. But analysts say they won’t turn the tide of the war on their own.

Russia is making small but steady battlefield gains in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and its steady forward movement is adding up as Ukraine gradually yields ground.
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London — Police in the north of England town of Rotherham were struggling to hold back a mob of far-right rioters Sunday who were seeking to break into a hotel believed to be housing asylum seekers, as the latest bout of rioting following a stabbing rampage at a dance class last week that left three girls dead and several wounded showed few signs of abating. 

Footage from Sky News showed a line of police officers with shields facing a barrage of missiles, including bits of wood, chairs and fire extinguishers, as they sought to prevent the rioters from entering the Holiday Inn Express hotel. A small fire was also visible while windows in the hotel were smashed. 

A police helicopter circled overhead, and at least one injured officer in riot gear was carried away as the atmosphere turned increasingly febrile. 

More demonstrations are expected to take place around the U.K., but mainly in England, with many counter-demonstrators also set to make their presence felt. In the northeast town of Middlesborough, riot police sought to hold back demonstrators and even used dogs to prevent them running ahead of the officers patrolling the march. 

On Saturday, far-right activists faced off with anti-racism protesters across the U.K., with violent scenes playing out in locations across the U.K., from Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, to Liverpool in the northwest of England and Bristol in the west. Around 100 people were arrested but more are likely as police scour CCTV, social media and footage from body-worn cameras. 

In just one incident on Saturday, Merseyside Police said about 300 people were involved in violent disorder in Liverpool, which saw a community facility set on fire. The Spellow Lane Library Hub, which was opened last year to provide support for one of the most deprived communities in the country, suffered severe damage to the ground floor. 

Police have also warned that widespread security measures, with thousands of officers deployed, mean that other crimes may not be investigated fully. 

“We’re seeing officers that are being pulled from day-to-day policing,” Tiffany Lynch from the Police Federation of England and Wales told the BBC. “But while that’s happening, the communities that are out there that are having incidents against them — victims of crime — unfortunately, their crimes are not being investigated.” 

The violence erupted earlier this week, ostensibly in protest of Monday’s stabbing attack in Southport. A 17-year-old male has been arrested. 

False rumors spread online that the young man was a Muslim and an immigrant, fueling anger among far-right supporters,. Suspects under 18 are usually not named in the U.K., but Judge Andrew Menary ordered Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales to Rwandan parents, to be identified, in part to stop the spread of misinformation. Rudakubana has been charged with three counts of murder, and 10 counts of attempted murder. 

Police said many of the actions are being organized online by shadowy far-right groups, who are mobilizing support online with phrases like “enough is enough,” “save our kids” and “stop the boats.” They are tapping into concerns about the scale of immigration in the country, in particular the tens of thousands of migrants arriving in small boats from France across the English Channel. 

Calls for protests have come from a diffuse group of social media accounts, but a key player in amplifying them is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a longtime far-right agitator who uses the name Tommy Robinson. He led the English Defense League, which Merseyside Police has linked to the violent protest in Southport on Tuesday, a day after the stabbing attack. 

The group first appeared around 2009, leading a series of protests against what it described as militant Islam that often devolved into violence. Yaxley-Lennon was banned from Twitter in 2018 but allowed back after it was bought by Elon Musk and rebranded as X. He has more than 800,000 followers. 

The group’s membership and impact declined after a few years, and Yaxley-Lennon, 41, has faced myriad legal issues. He has been jailed for assault, contempt of court and mortgage fraud and currently faces an arrest warrant after leaving the U.K. last week before a scheduled hearing in contempt-of-court proceedings against him. 

Nigel Farage, who was elected to parliament in July for the first time as leader of Reform U.K., has also been blamed by many for encouraging — indirectly — the anti-immigration sentiment that has been evident over the past few days. While condemning the violence, he has criticized the government for blaming it on “a few far-right thugs” and saying “the far right is a reaction to fear … shared by tens of millions of people.” 

Far-right demonstrators have held several violent gatherings since the stabbing attack, clashing with police Tuesday outside a mosque in Southport — near the scene of the stabbing — and hurling beer cans, bottles and flares near the prime minister’s office in London the next day. Many in Southport have expressed their anger at the organized acts of violence in the wake of the tragedy. 

Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, has blamed the violence on “far-right hatred” and vowed to end the mayhem. He said police across the U.K. would be given more resources to stop “a breakdown in law and order on our streets.” 

Policing minister Diana Johnson told the BBC that there is “no need” to bring in the army to help police in their efforts to confront the violence. 

“The police have made it very clear that they have all the resources they need at the moment,” she said. 
…

Kyiv — Ukraine has sunk a Russian submarine and hit a Russian airfield in the past 24 hours, in line with a surge of long-range attacks against Russian targets, officials said. Russia said Ukrainian drones also hit an apartment building, killing one person. 

The uptick in attacks since July comes as Ukraine mounts pressure on allies to allow it to use long-range missiles to strike targets in Russia. Western allies, in particular the U.S., have so far resisted, fearing escalation from Moscow.

Ukraine struck a Russian Kilo-class submarine and an S-400 anti aircraft missile complex in the Moscow-occupied Crimean peninsula, according to a statement from the General Staff on Saturday. The air defense system was established to protect the Kerch Strait Bridge, an important logistics and transport hub supplying Russian forces.

Units of the missile forces, as well as the Navy, damaged four launchers of the Triumph air defense system, while in the port of Sevastopol, the “Rostov-on-Don” — a submarine of Russia’s Black Sea fleet — was attacked and sank, the statement said.

The General Staff also confirmed that Ukrainian forces struck the Morozovsk airfield in the Rostov region after launching a massive drone barrage on Russia. Hits were recorded in warehouses with ammunition, where guided aerial bombs were stored. The operation was carried out by the Security Service of Ukraine, the Main Directorate of Intelligence and the Defense Ministry, the statement said.

Meanwhile, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said that a woman was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on an apartment building in the town of Shebekino early Sunday. Ukrainian drones also damaged several other buildings in the town, he said.

Gladkov said eight civilians have been wounded in the region by Ukrainian shelling and dozens of drone strikes since the previous day. 

In the span of a month, Russia has experienced a surge in the tempo of Ukrainian drone barrages and long-range attacks, targeting Russian military infrastructure, including airfields and oil depots. Analysts say such an intensification is needed if Ukraine is to degrade Russian capabilities.

In other developments: 

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said he has appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations to investigate a photo that allegedly shows the body of a Ukrainian prisoner of war tortured and executed by Russian forces. He has also asked Ukrainian authorities to verify the identity of the deceased.

The photo, circulating on social media, shows the body of a person without a head or limbs. The Associated Press was unable to verify it. 

“This is not just a violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, this is the behavior of monsters,” Lubinets said in a statement on Telegram.

“We are aware of recent reports online and in the media. We take these reports extremely seriously. The way we work is to respond via relevant authorities directly and confidentially,” Pat Griffiths, ICRC Spokesperson in Ukraine, told the Associated Press on Sunday when asked about Lubinet’s request.

“Speaking generally, the law of armed conflict is clear. Prisoners of war must be treated humanely at all times,” he added.
…

New York — Economic fears are roiling Wall Street, as worries grow that the Federal Reserve may have left interest rates elevated for too long, allowing them to hurt U.S. growth.

Alarming economic data in recent days have deepened those concerns. U.S. job growth slowed more than expected in July, a Friday report showed, while the unemployment rate increased to 4.3%, heightening fears that a deteriorating labor market could make the economy vulnerable to a recession.

The jobs report exacerbated a selloff in stocks that began on Thursday, when data showing weakness in the labor market and manufacturing sector pushed investors to dump everything from chip stocks to industrials while piling into defensive plays.

Richly valued tech stocks tumbled further on Friday, extending losses in the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC to more than 10% from a record closing high reached in July. The benchmark S&P 500 index .SPX has slid 5.7% from its July peak.

“This is what a growth scare looks like,” said Wasif Latif, president and chief investment officer at Sarmaya Partners. “The market is now realizing that the economy is indeed slowing.”

For months, investors had been heartened by cooling inflation and gradually slowing employment, believing they bolstered the case for the Fed to begin cutting interest rates. That optimism drove big gains in stocks: the S&P 500 remains up 12% this year, despite recent losses; the Nasdaq has gained nearly 12%.

Now that a September rate cut has come into view following a Fed meeting this week, investors are fretting that elevated borrowing costs may already be hurting economic growth. Corporate earnings results, which saw disappointments from companies such as Amazon, Alphabet and Intel, are adding to their concerns.

“We’re witnessing the fallout from the curse of high expectations,” said James St. Aubin, chief investment officer at Ocean Park Asset Management. “So much had been invested around the scenario of a soft landing, that anything that even suggests something different is difficult.”

Next week brings earnings from industrial bellwether Caterpillar CAT.N and media and entertainment giant Walt Disney DIS.N, which will give more insight into the health of the consumer and manufacturing, as well as reports from healthcare heavyweights such as weight-loss drugmaker Eli Lilly LLY.N.

Bets in the futures markets on Friday suggested growing unease about the economy. Fed fund futures reflected traders pricing an over-70% chance of a 50-basis point cut at the central bank’s September meeting, compared to 22% the day before, according to CME FedWatch. Futures priced a total of 116 basis points in rate cuts in 2024, compared to just over 60 basis points priced in on Wednesday.

Broader markets also showed signs of unease. The Cboe Volatility index .VIX – known as Wall Street’s fear gauge – hit its highest since March 2023 on Friday as demand for options protection against a stock market selloff rose.

Meanwhile, investors have rushed into safe haven bonds and other defensive areas of the market. U.S. 10-year yields – which move inversely to bond prices – on Friday dropped as low as 3.79%, the lowest since December.

Sectors that are often popular during times of economic uncertainty are also drawing investors.

Options data for the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund XLV.P showed the average daily balance between put and call contracts over the last month at its most bullish in about three years, according to a Reuters analysis of Trade Alert data. Trading in the options on Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund XLU.P also shows a pullback in defensive positioning, highlighting traders’ expectations for strength for the sector.

The healthcare sector .SPXHC is up 4% in the past month, while utilities .SPLRCU are up over 9%. By contrast, the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index .SOX is down nearly 17% in that period amid sharp losses in investor favorites such as Nvidia NVDA.O and Broadcom AVGO.O.

To be sure, some investors said the data could just be a reason to lock in profits after the market’s overall strong run in 2024.

“This is a good excuse for investors to sell after a huge year to date rally,” said Michael Purves, CEO of Tallbacken Capital Advisors. “Investors should be prepared for some major volatility, particularly in the big tech stocks. But it will probably be short-lived.” 
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Mexico City — The Biden administration will expand areas where migrants can apply online for appointments to enter the United States to a large swath of southern Mexico, officials said Saturday, potentially easing strains on the Mexican government and lessening dangers for people trying to reach the U.S. border to claim asylum.

Migrants will be able to schedule appointments on the CBP One app from the states of Chiapas and Tabasco, extending the zone from northern and central Mexico, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said. The move satisfies a request of Mexico, an increasingly close partner of the U.S. in efforts to control extraordinary migration flows.

The change will spare migrants from traveling north through Mexico to get one of 1,450 appointments made available daily, CBP said. The agency said it will happen soon but did not give a date.

“We consistently engage with our partners in the Government of Mexico and work together to adjust policies and practices in response to the latest migration trends and security needs,” CBP said in a statement.

The statement confirmed remarks a day earlier by Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Secretary Alicia Bárcena, who said closer relations with the United States cut migration sharply from late last year.

U.S. officials have said increased Mexican enforcement is largely responsible for a sharp drop in U.S. arrests for illegal border crossings during the first half of this year. Mexican officials have stepped up their presence at highway checkpoints and on railroads leading to the U.S. border, returning most to southern Mexico.

In June, the U.S. temporarily suspended asylum processing for those who enter the country illegally, making CBP One of the only avenues for migrants to enter the U.S. to seek asylum and further driving down illegal entries. U.S. officials said arrests for illegal crossings plunged 30% in July from the previous month to the lowest level of Joe Biden’s presidency and the lowest since September 2020.

“We have managed to decompress our [northern] border in a very meaningful way and that has helped … our relationship with the United States be very, very dynamic and very positive,” Bárcena said Friday.

More than 680,000 people scheduled CBP One appointments at eight Mexican land crossings with the U.S. from its introduction in January 2023 through June. The top nationalities are Venezuelan, Cuban and Haitian. U.S. authorities recently limited slots for Mexicans due to the high number of applicants from the country.

The perils of traveling through Mexico to be kidnapped or robbed has prompted many migrants to fly to northern border cities like Tijuana for their CBP One appointments once they reach the southernmost point from which they can apply — until now, Mexico City.

Migrants generally enter Mexico in Chiapas or Tabasco from Guatemala. Mexico City may offer more job opportunities and relative safety but the cost of living is higher, prompting some to live in informal camps in the nation’s capital.
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rome — Italy’s coast guard said Sunday two migrants died after they were rescued along with more than 30 others in the Mediterranean off the eastern coast of Sicily.

The coast guard said it received a distress call late Saturday from a boat located about 17 miles southeast of Syracuse carrying Syrian, Egyptian and Bangladeshi migrants.

Search and rescue operations began after the coast guard dispatched a patrol boat and plane to the area, but “the occupants of the vessel ended up in the water as the patrol boat approached,” it said in a statement.

Although 34 people were recovered from the water, put onto the patrol boat and transferred to Syracuse’s port, one died upon arrival and another after reaching the hospital.

“The search at sea for a missing person who was on board the vessel, which later sank, is currently under way,” it said.

The coast guard said it was investigating how the migrants ended up in the water as the boat approached.

At least 384 migrants died in the first quarter of this year crossing by sea via the central Mediterranean route toward Italy and Malta, according to the International Organization for Migration.
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MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines and Germany on Sunday committed to signing a defense cooperation arrangement this year, vowing to stand for the international rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and his Philippine counterpart Gilberto Teodoro committed to establishing long-term relations between their armed forces to expand training and bilateral exchanges, explore opportunities to expand bilateral armaments cooperation and engage in joint projects.

The two met in Manila during the first such visit by a German defense minister, as their countries mark 70 years of diplomatic relations.

Teodoro said the Philippines, seeking to modernize its military to boost external defense, will be “looking to engage Germany as a possible supplier of these capabilities.”

“These are in the command and control, anti-access aerial denial, maritime domain, aerial domain and in higher technologically capable equipment,” Teodoro told a news conference with Pistorius.

Manila and Berlin are deepening military ties as tensions have flared in recent months between China and the Philippines, which have traded accusations over run-ins in disputed areas of the South China Sea, including charges China intentionally rammed Manila’s navy boats seriously injuring a Filipino sailor.

China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including areas claimed as exclusive economic zones by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague said Beijing’s claims had no legal basis. China rejects that decision.

“This ruling remains valid, without any exceptions,” said Pistorius. “It is our obligation to strengthen the maritime border and we are living up to it.”

The South China Sea is a vital trade route with more than $3 trillion in ship-borne trade passing through it every year.

Teodoro said the Philippines was not provoking China and did not seek war, but reiterated Manila’s stance that the only cause of conflict in the waterway “is China’s illegal and unilateral attempt to appropriate most if not all of the South China Sea.”

China has expressed concern about the growing ties between NATO members and Asian nations such as Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, as Washington and its partners expand alliances and partnerships, including those that span the globe.

Germany on Friday joined the U.S.-led United Nations Command in South Korea, becoming the 18th nation in a group that helps police the heavily fortified border with North Korea and has committed to defend the South in the event of a war.

Pistorius said that move was evidence of Berlin’s strong belief that European security is closely linked to security in the Indo-Pacific region.

Germany’s commitments and engagements in the region “are not directed against anybody,” Pistorius said in Manila. “Instead, we are focusing on maintaining rules-based order, securing freedom of navigation and protecting trade routes.”
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